Finland sweeps Canada in World League volleyball

Poland (7-2) still leads Group B with 21 points and Brazil (6-3) follows at 20. The Finns (3-6) have seven while Canada is 2-7 for six points. Earlier Sunday, the Brazilians defeated Poland in four sets. Additional points are awarded for five-set losses.

In the Canada-Finland match, Fred Winters of Victoria was Canada’s top scorer with 12 points while Gavin Schmitt of Saskatoon and Dallas Soonias of Red Deer, Alta., posted nine each. Finland’s Mikko Oivanen led all scorers with 17.

Using its block power, Finland jumped to a 6-1 opening set lead and never trailed. In the second Finland's Matti Oivanen stopped Schmitt twice on the attack to take a 4-0. Canada’s head coach Glenn Hoag tried to change things, replacing Justin Duff of Winnipeg and Schmitt, but the Finns stayed in control at 16-10.

“Finland started the first two sets playing really hard and that made the match very difficult for us,’’ said Winters. ‘’We were ahead in the third set, but we wasted it in the end. We had a lot of trouble attacking”.

Canada had its best start in the third set and took a 5-3 lead and scored three points in a row to recover the lead before the second technical timeout. However Jukka Lethonen blocked to tie the set again before Antti Esko blocked to seal a Finnish win.

“Our receiving was OK, but we had problems in spiking, and that put a lot of pressure on us to play well in defence and blocking,’’ said Hoag. ‘’That is something we have to work on for next week. Unfortunately we lost to a rival and will need to play well in Finland”.

The fourth and final round for group B is next Friday to Sunday in Tampere, Finland. The top team in each of the four groups and the best second place along with host Bulgaria advance to the World League final next month in Sofia.

ROSTER

Canadian team roster for Group B second round in World League men’s volleyball June 8-10 in